Last night I watched the I ❤ Radio concert on Fox and I really really liked it for many reasons.
While I thoroughly enjoy all the things which comes from production value, I feel like something is often lost in the process of adding lights and flash and all that hype.
I enjoy the simplicity of a voice, a microphone, and maybe minimal accompaniment. It gives the music a sense of fragility, of vulnerability, and I like that.
I feel the I ❤ Radio concert gave a glimpse into the way many of the artists and performers live their lives.
People we normally only ever see on stage dressed to impress in 1080p HD, instead are presented in their pajamas, on their living room couch. No backup singers or dance troupes. Just them and a guitar or keyboard.
I didn’t realize this until one performer showed up in a very different way. She had three backup singers and a pianist join her remotely and was dressed to impress with a dress that cost more than I’ll make in a decade and flawless makeup. Don’t mistake me, I love her music and have been a fan of hers for as long as I can remember, but the contrast was striking. It made me realize what I found so appealing in the format of the concert itself.
It was unadorned, simple, and compellingly real. It was the art without the artifice.
I hope once the crisis is past there is a place for televised concerts to be done with the same aesthetic not out of necessity for social distancing, but as an expression of artistic value.
Amber Fayefox Kim 